The present invention relates to digital networks, and in particular, to automatically providing secure access on digital client devices.
Digital networks have rapidly become the backbone of many enterprises, small and large. Within an enterprise, these networks, often called Intranets, are secured from outside attack and intrusion by firewalls, filters, gateways, and other defensive structures. In addition to these protective structures, enterprise intranets often provide secure access to other resources such as mail servers, file servers, databases, printing, and the like. When a client is operating inside the enterprise, connected to the enterprise intranet whether by a wired or wireless connection, they operate under the protective umbrella of the enterprise, provided with secure access to resources.
In contrast, when an enterprise user connects to the wider Internet outside the protective structures of the enterprise, they do so without benefit of enterprise protection, and without access to secure enterprise resources.
Solutions exist, such as tunneling and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to provide secure access through the Internet to enterprise resources.
While technology savvy users understand the risks associated with connecting directly to the Internet, and use tunneling protocols and/or VPN access with ease to establish secure access to enterprise resources, such concepts and tools are more challenging to non-savvy users, such as corporate executives, not understanding the differences between secured and unsecured network connections. Yet these users are often the most vocal about needing access to enterprise resources, and are the most vulnerable to threats in an unsecured environment.
What is needed is a way of automatically providing secure client access to enterprise resources, independent of network connection.